RAYNHAM — The Raynham Board of Selectmen is opposing the new Walmart’s efforts to receive a license to cash checks at its new Route 138 superstore.

The three-person board voted unanimously on Tuesday night to write a letter to the Massachusetts Commissioner of Banks David Cotney expressing concern about the request, citing constant police calls at the other town Walmart store off Route 44 and a lack of coordinated planning for the check cashing service.

The motion came after the town received correspondence from Cotney about an upcoming public hearing, after Walmart filed for a license to operate a check cashing service at its new 160 Broadway Store on Route 138. The hearing is scheduled for April 14 at 6 p.m. at Raynham Town Hall.

Joseph Pacheco, chairman of the Raynham Board of Selectmen, said that the check cashing service license request caught the board by surprise and that it was never discussed during the planning process for the Route 138 Walmart store.

“When the original proposal came down the pipe, it didn’t include a check cashing service,” Pacheco said. “It takes additional resources … you risk people getting robbed and stuff when carrying that much cash around. Outside of that, it’s separate and has to really be monitored. Walmart never reached out to us and said this was something they were interested in doing.”

Selectman Richard Schiavo said that concerns from the Raynham Police Department about the amount of calls they receive for shoplifting and related issues at the Raynham Walmart off Route 44 led him to voice his disapproval of the check cashing service license for the new Walmart store in the town. Schiavo said he also wants the town to look into the check cashing license long held by the Route 44 Walmart, which is on Paramount Drive.

“I requested we raise the question of safety there as well because we have an incredible amount of police calls,” Schiavo said. “The number of police calls at Walmart … it’s just mind-boggling.”

Bill Wertz, a spokesperson for Walmart, issued a statement for the company in response to the check cashing issue in Raynham.

“We’re seeking approval from the Massachusetts Division of Banks to offer convenient and safe check cashing services at the new Raynham Supercenter, just as we provide this service to customers at our other Massachusetts locations,” Wertz said. “Customers appreciate our low fees and the ability to cash checks where they do their shopping.”

Wertz said Walmart cashes checks at stores in 47 states.

Raynham police Chief James Donovan said that in 2013, calls from the Paramount Drive Walmart resulted in one-third of all bookings, or people charged with a crime, throughout the town. In 2013, Raynham police charged 619 people with a crime town wide, Donovan said. Out of that, 202 resulted from calls at the Paramount Drive Walmart, he said. In total, Raynham Police responded to 763 calls at the Paramount Drive store in 2013, Donovan said.

Page 2 of 3 - Donovan said he feels strongly about Walmart draining Raynham police resources and is calling for the store to voluntarily offer his department mitigation funds. Donovan said he understands Walmart generates a large amount of tax dollars to the town, but argued that it requires a disproportionate amount of police service.

“I think I’d go back to the fact that it’s inordinate,” Donovan said. “The other businesses in town are paying the same rates. … But the amount of calls we go to Walmart for is inordinate. That’s kind of the point. They are drawing our services far more than everyone else.”

According to town records, the Paramount Drive Walmart has been one of the community’s top five property tax contributors. In fiscal 2012, it trailed behind only Johnson and Johnson, the Chestnut Farm apartment complex, the Cedar-Raynham Shaw’s Plaza company and Preferred Freezer. It’s unclear exactly how much the new Route 138 Walmart will contribute to the town in property taxes, but Walmart pointed out that the Paramount Drive store paid more than $300,000 in taxes to the town in 2013.

Donovan said that Walmart is a “billion-dollar company” that could easily help the situation, specifically by helping his department with holding cells, of which it has only two. Donovan said the problem is the high amount of juveniles and women who are arrested at Walmart, explaining that they must be separated from adult men at the station, meaning that his officers must take more time to transport prisoners to the county jail in New Bedford.

“Really, they are the victims of crime,” Donovan said of Walmart. “We don’t want to re-victimize the victim, but obviously they are profiting, making lots of money from these stores … and having an impact on police department. They could certainly afford to help me with that, and we could help them better to reduce their loss and keep the store safe for customers and employees.”

Walmart responded on Friday to Donovan’s comments, challenging his figures related to calls at the Paramount Drive Walmart.

“Walmart takes the safety of its associates and customers very seriously, and both Walmart stores in Raynham are safe places to work and shop,” said Wertz, the Walmart spokesperson, in an email to the Gazette. “The city’s own statistics on its police log (www.raynhampd.com/policeLog.htm), suggest that calls to Walmart are only 3 to 5 percent of the total. We have not had time to analyze the nature of the bookings to which the police chief has referred, but part of keeping Walmart and other businesses safe requires apprehending and arresting those who break the law.”

Walmart also shot down Donovan’s request that Walmart provide additional mitigation to the Raynham Police Department.

Page 3 of 3 - “However, the notion that businesses should make individual contributions to the police department is not consistent with the city’s system of funding municipal services with tax revenue after careful review and consideration of needs and priorities,” Wertz said in the email.

Donovan was promoted to the Raynham Police Chief position in 2010 after much of the dealings with Walmart surrounding the new Route 138 store already took place, he said. Walmart provided $100,000 toward a new Raynham fire engine and $2,500 community grant to help with the town’s teen center.

Donovan said that he didn’t have specific information to offer about crimes at the Route 44 Raynham Walmart related to its check cashing operations, such larceny using fake checks.

But Donovan said that the amount of calls to the store has increased steadily in recent years, and attributed part of the problem to the heroin epidemic in Taunton. Donovan said, “almost none of these people committing crimes are local,” noting that he’s arrested suspects from Connecticut and Rhode Island and often New Bedford and Fall River.

Donovan said that thankfully, so far, the new Walmart on Route 138 has yielded only six calls since it opened on March 15, including five for shoplifting.

Donovan said he has heard Walmart’s responses before — that most of the calls are not for violent crimes. But he said that doesn’t make a difference in terms of the police resources needed, and often calls for nonviolent crime results in more complicated issues.

“Sometimes minor amounts of product is stolen there, but it ends up that the person is carrying a firearm,” he said. “We’ve gone there for a minor amount of product and the person flees because they are wanted for some other more serious offense. It’s not anything to take lightly.”